Impacts were expected on common R&T approaches and way of working between Europe and Japan, for having strong links in the future, in aerospace industry to propose high technology aircraft with affordable price for worldwide market.
During the final EFFICOMP meeting, a specific NCC Workshop was organised by NCC at the Nagoya University. Presentations made by the European and Japanese partners permitted to present the EFFICOMP Project, but also to give to the Japanese composites consortium members, a view of the partners R&D organisations & activities: contacts were established, which can be fruitful in the future, if further programs are intended to be launch in continuation of EFFICOMP.
The Resistive heating Process could lead to more flexible manufacturing process chains and to reorganization of Composites Workshops within Airbus Bus; Semi-curing processes should be also interesting for new industrial approaches, if use of low cost materials and outsourcing the Manufacture of pre-cured slit tapes: Outsourcing the Composites Blankets manufacture to SMEs, after technological transfer in a first step by AIRBUS, is the second way to investigate. AIRBUS CRT (AGI) already organized and will organize after the end of the project, internal workshops for promoting the results of the project. Knowledge does not have to stay in laboratories, therefore everything will be done to enable a fast transfer of EFFICOMP results in the shop floors, if any interest of AIRBUS BUs.
A DLR Patent is pending related to the hybrid heating technology.
USTUTT is an institution with focus on research, lecture and training. One focus of EFFICOMP results exploitation will thus be educational purposes. Furthermore, events like public science and open house days, were everyone can visit the workshop and see the Advanced ply Placement (APP)-Cell in action, are organised on yearly basis. The IFB is very active in local and international industry networks and always promotes the APP process.
The reduction of material costs and waste has economic and ecological benefits, in line with the goals of Flightpath 2050 and ACARE SRIA.The DLR cost tool will not be commercialized now, but it might play a decisive role, planning the German-French Next Generation Weapon System.The costing tool is moreover used intensively today for assessment of wind turbine rotor blade production.
Welding Process is the low-energy and cost-efficient alternative to curenttly used joining techniques. This may have quite a large impact, because it touches aspects of composite-oriented design, maintenance factors, as well as certification issues. It is a key component for the green composite aircraft of the Future, because of suppressing the metallic rivets, inducing drastic weight decrease, with impact on NOx emission and fuel consumption reduction. It could be used now for assemblying dissimilar composite structures, which increases the number of assembly applications and its potential for industrial application.
The dissemination actions performed so far have resulted in an increased awareness of the EFFICOMP project in the European Aeronautical Industry, the European Scientific Community and Academia, as well as in the Composites Industry. The effort towards keeping the EFFICOMP Community updated about the project’s achievements and significant results will continue after the end of the project.
